Quieting Your Heart

My heart is not proud Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with it's mother; like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.
Psalm 131

Are you feeling overwhelmed or a little bit stressed over events you see or are happening in your life? I only ask because it's where I have been tempted to go the last couple of days. 
Then I remembered Psalm 131 and decided to read it again, and again, and again. (I had listened to a teaching on it not too long ago, so it was still pretty fresh in my memory.) His Word quiets the anxious heart.

Because he is the Lord and I trust him, I will not try to figure out the why, I will not concern myself with great matters
Because he is the Lord and has always been faithful in all things, I will be content in whatever situation I find myself in. I will be like that weaned child with it's mother. He has all things under his control, all of it, I do not need to worry.  It may look like a mess from my view, but it's because I don't see the beauty tapestry he is weaving. Continuing to learn, to rest in him.

He Is The Author

"Your story isn't a autobiography either. Your story is a biography of wisdom and grace written by another. Every turn he writes into your story is right. Every twist of the plot is for the best. Every new character or unexpected event is a tool of his grace. Each new chapter advances his purpose" 

Excerpt from "New Morning Mercies" by Paul David Tripp...July 21st

"Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them, for the ways of the Lord are right"
Hosea 14:9a

This an ongoing thing for me, I need this reminder everyday. Actually I need this reminder several times a day, specifically when events take a detour from what I expected.  I think I hold things loosely, but the Lord shows me, on a pretty regular basis that this isn't true. 

Help me remember Lord, your way is always better than mine.

Thankful Thursday

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits  Psalm 103:2

Even when circumstances are not ideal there is much to be thankful for

I have completed step two of a three step dental process. It was NOT something I wanted to do, it's inconvenient and not where I wanted to put finances at this time. (read...not in my plans for this year) but I can be thankful for a caring dentist, that the procedures have gone well so far (inserting the pins went really well Tuesday) and we did have the finances to get it done (the Lord even provided an opportunity for me to make a little extra money this past spring) And since the process is spread out over a nine month time period it has given us time to get extra funds saved.

Sweet Lady has made a wonderful transition to her new home. We have found the staff to be caring and the other residents to be delightful. After about two weeks we have begun finding her sitting outside on the porch again...something she had stopped doing at her previous residence and introducing us again and again to staff members. We are thankful for all the staff and our physician who helped make this move an easy one. There are other physical issues still to be dealt with but again we are thankful to our physician who is considerate of her needs and limitations.

My back has been "misbehaving" the last couple of weeks but I can be thankful for a husband who has been more than willing to "pick up the slack"  (and who offered to pick me up some "So Delicious Cashew Milk Ice Cream" when I couldn't chew the other day after my procedure, if you can't do dairy give it a try, it's pretty amazing)

I am thankful for the Lord's faithfulness in all circumstances. Even when things seemed to be going all wrong I can still find ways that he has blessed us or sustained us through it.  How about you, are there things you can be thankful for today?

Refreshment and Relaxation

We recently attended a wedding several hours north of us. It required a two day drive each way, only because after 5-6 hours on the road I am done for the day. This worked out well for us because my sister was at the 5 hour point (each way) so we spent the night at her house coming and going.

It was a wonderful time to catch up with family. while at my sister's house the first night my brother brought over a delicious meal of Chicken Chesapeake, Roasted Potatoes and Fresh Corn. He is quite the cook and loves to whip up things for the family. He finished off the meal with fresh Cherries Jubilee over Ice Cream. Unfortunately I was too busy eating to think about taking any photos. It was delicious and we were blown away by his kindness in going to all the trouble of making this special meal for us. My sister on her end, did all she could to make her home a comfortable stop on our journey. I am so thankful for my sister and the relationship we now have and that we have also been able to reconnect with my brother. God's grace alone

We had been looking forward to this trip as a little get away from schedules that were seeming way too busy and responsibilities that were feeling overwhelming, and as a way of reconnecting with each other a little.

The trip provided all of the above and some much needed "food" for our weary souls, a bonus I wasn't anticipating. (I don't think I realized that in addition to being physically weary, we were in a bit of a spiritual drought as well.) Prior to the trip I had downloaded several of our favorite podcasts to listen to on the trip. The car we had rented had a USB port to plug my IPod in so we were set.. We had various sermon series, apologetics, teaching and bible studies to choose from. It made the time go by fast and we felt refreshed by the time we were home.

So we had time with family, a small town to explore, a beautiful wedding to attended and hours listening to the word of God preached....I really couldn't have asked for more. We enjoyed it so much that it has influenced the type of Anniversary Trip we are planning for later this year...it's going have many of the elements as this trip had....and it's going to be very laid back

Exploring Main Street, many stores and eateries were closed for the 4th of July as well as Sundays...so refreshing!

Fireworks were held at the local high school, it seemed like the whole town was there, so we decided to join in.

Can you think of a prettier wedding venue?

I had to get a photo after the ceremony. The view was breathtaking

June Moments

I'm bit late on getting my June Moments together, but like I mentioned in my last post, it has been a crazy busy couple of weeks. To make matters worse, I never cleaned up any photos while the Grands were here and my IPhoto went into overload mode. Too many photos, not enough space. I have spent the last two weeks deleting photos or moving them to a backup drive. I have a long way to go but, I am getting things organized and can once again upload photos.

So ya'll know the Grands were here for just over two weeks, so it should be no surprise that the bulk of my photos are from their visit. While they were here we celebrated both Sweet Lady's and Little Red's Birthday and our 40th Wedding Anniversary. We will be doing some official celebrating of the Anniversary a little later this year.

Sweet Lady has kept us busy with all the details involved with her move. She's been at her new home for about three weeks now and we couldn't be more delighted.

Youngest son was also here while Grands were visiting, it made for a really busy house but we loved it.

The house is quiet again, but life continues to be busy. I have struggled with God's purposes in this "season" of life I am in. I can't explain it fully, but I am more at peace than I have been. I still don't understanding all of his purposes but I have to believe he is directing my circumstances. In that truth I can rest, but it's a work in progress.

It was a month of laughter and tears, of beach days and rainy days, celebrations and goodbyes. This month has had it all.

So without further ado, here's a little glimpse of June